For those that do not want to read the complete review

Pros

Phone related Cons

Android 2.1 related Cons because the hardware is just that incredible

Design and Body

The phone is undeniably sexy. The round edges and metallic colors make this phone turn heads everywhere. Don’t believe me? I did the test myself by showing the phone to schoolmates and workmates and they were all at awe with the design of the phone. The phone itself feels extremely solid and falling off battery covers does not seem to be a possible problem in the future. You have a 3.5mm headphones jack next to the power/unlock button on top of the phone so you can listen to your favorites songs using your favorite earphones. You also have volume buttons on the side, which is always extremely useful in many situations. One of my quirks is the absence of a camera button on the phone. I do not like focusing with an on-screen button as it only makes it harder to capture the perfect shot. And the other one is the capacitive buttons on the screen. They work extremely well when holding the phone on your hand but when trying to use them while it is laying on a flat surface, they do not respond well to your touches. This problem comes from the fact that the pressure surface seems to lie on the upper part of the buttons. And although I appreciate the presence of a trackball, I would have preferred a trackpad like the newest Blackberrys and the upcoming HTC Desire.

The Screen

Coming from a HTC Dream, all I can say is WOW! The AMOLED screen does seem to make a world of a difference. At first I was skeptical because of various people complaining about visibility under sunlight but a little settings changes (Turn on auto-brightness), it fixes all the problems and the screen keeps its beauty under extreme sunlight. The touchscreen is very responsible of course. My biggest surprise came from the ease of multi-touch functionality on the phone. I really did not expect it to work as well as the iPhone did on pictures and web browsing. As the screen is slightly bigger than the iPhone (0.2in), it only makes this feature more fun and easier to use! The display having a resolution of 800 x 480 display WebPages beautifully and provide one of the best browsing experience available in any mobile devices available on the market today! But for an unknown reason, my girlfriend had problems using the touchscreen, even though she was very used to the HTC Dream.

Functionality

It is not a secret, the phone runs on Snapdragon, a mobile CPU made by Qualcomm running 1 Ghz. And for those coming from other Android phones will immediately notice the difference. There is no lag at all when opening apps and navigating through the phone does not feel sluggy at all. No matter how I tried slowing down the phone I was not able to push the CPU to the max. I had 10 tabs open in my browser, running a couple of apps on the background, syncing running on 3G, and then ran a game Speed Forge 3D and did not notice any lag during gameplay and that is just WOW. The 5-megapixel camera takes very good picture and can take 720p resolution videos. I am not the best at judging the quality so I’ll let you form your own opinion with the example here.

Both phone volume and ringer volume were more than acceptable for me but I’m not too picky on those grounds because I have excellent hearing and I usually leave my phone on vibrate. I have not had the chance to really test out the noise canceling functionality but my girlfriend did say could not hear any background noise when I called her from the car filled downtown streets. The phone signal is weak compared to many other phones, this is caused by the placement of the antenna, which is on the bottom of the phone making it very easy to cover it with your hand while holding the phone. I did not come across any dropped calls yet but I did not lose signal many times on spots that I usually have signal on the HTC Dream. But when the 3G connection is good, browsing is lightning fast on the phone thanks to its Snapdragon processor. Oh forgot to mention that the phone comes unlocked and is easily rootable with the various tutorials available when you search for it.

Texting with the Nexus

Many people worry about this one. People are worried are that texting will not be as fun as it is on the iPhone because of the lack of multitouch on the default keyboard. Alternative are available in the market for those that cannot live without this features. You just have to browse for the perfect one for yourself. For myself, although typing does feel like a better experience on the iPhone; I am very satisfied with the stock keyboard, here is a video demonstrations of me typing with the Nexus One.

Battery Life

Coming from the HTC Dream, the Nexus One has an amazing battery life. On my test day I used it extensively by taking a good amount of pictures, filming videos, making phone calls, sending numerous text messages, playing games, downloading apps, leaving the phone on sync with 3G and GPS on, playing games, playing youtube clips, browsing, hell anything you can do with the damn phone. I left home at 7AM and by 8h45 PM, the battery was down to 16%. It is a low figure but do not forget that it was not a normal test but heavy usage the whole day. On normal usage, the phone should easily last 2 days, which is high for a Smartphone. The screen was the biggest juice drainer as the phone shows that it was responsible for 56% of the drain.

Android 2.1

A big seller for the Nexus One is because it is currently the only phone one the market officially running Android 2.1. How does it perform compared to previous version? Well it has a load of added features but most of them just affect aesthetics. Android 2.1. Here are the updates presented on the Nexus One:

Live Wallpapers
Interactive wallpapers that can be assigned to homescreen. Some respond to touch, others with music rhythm and some to time and weather.

More homescreens
You are no longer limited to 3 with the Nexus, it now features 5 screens

Homescreens Navigation
The Nexus One has little thumbnails options to quickly navigate through the 5 homescreens

New App Launcher
The new app launcher has fancy little 3d animation scrolling effects while navigating through them.

Voice Typing EVERYWHERE
Nuff said

3D photo gallery
The new gallery has 3D effects that integrates with Picasa has also accelerometer functions you can use for fancy useless effects!

New Widgets
Google added Power Control widget that lets you manipulate connections and screen brightness. And also a ugly looking news and weather widget that opens a portal to news and weather when you press on it.

All these new features are fun but do not fix many of the problems currently present in Android. It still forcecloses a bit too often in my opinion. Some interface need some more tuning for easier use.

Conclusion

This said, does the phone come recommended? Personally, I fell in love from the moment I turned on the phone. The screen is amazing, has great features I love and use, has the best Android experience in the market and comes unlocked and is easily rootable. What more can an Android fan ask? Nothing more really.